Write Your Book.
Introduction
Dedicate some time to your writing. The Goldfinch Write Your Book course is a sixteen-week deep dive with sessions on the key elements you'll need to master to take you towards a finished novel.
It's also a chance to build a writing group that you can take with you into your future writing career. Over the course, you will workshop each other's work with your tutor, honing your own editorial eye as well as helping them develop their stories, and will be there to cheer each other on as you approach the finishing line of your first draft.
Application
We don't have specific requirements, but we need to know that you are at the stage of your writing to get the best out of the course.
The sessions will include workshopping of each other’s work, so you will need to be able to submit extracts of your writing and be prepared to read and comment on the writing of other participants.
You might be part way through your novel, or you might have completed a first rough draft. You might have one you’ve been working on for a while that isn’t yet structured or have a coherent narrative.
You don’t need to have attended the introductory course at Goldfinch, but you may be at around that level of knowledge. Have a chat with us and let us know about your writing experience, and what you would like to get out of the course. We will be honest with you and advise if we think this course is for you.
Teaching
On Thursday evenings for 16 weeks, tutor Louise Morrish will deliver 90-minute teaching sessions in the bookish surroundings of Goldfinch.
Each 90-minute session will include formal teaching with time and space for discussion and feedback. On eight of the sessions, 60 mins of the teaching will comprise workshopping of participants’ work. The maximum number of participants will be 8 per course to allow the optimum tutor-student time and attention. Lou will also set homework tasks to further your learning between sessions.
About Louise
Louise Morrish is a historical fiction author and librarian from Hampshire. She writes stories inspired by the lives of women in the past, who achieved extraordinary things, but whom history has forgotten.
Her debut novel, Operation Moonlight, won the Penguin Random House First Novel competition and was published in 2022.
Operation Moonlight is inspired by the female secret agents of the Special Operations Executive, whose brave exploits helped win World War II. Passionate about books, Louise also loves to trail run and wild swim.
PROGRAMME
A sixteen-week deep dive with sessions on the key elements you'll need to master to take you towards a finished novel.
Workshops
Workshops centre on extracts from your work-in-progress, and your writing will be workshopped by the group. These sessions offer in-depth feedback from your student group and tutor and are also designed to help develop your self-editing skills.
One-to-one tutorials
You’ll get a 30-minute one-to-one tutorial with Lou during the course, based on a 3,000-word extract from your work-in-progress. This is an excellent opportunity to address specific concerns about your writing.
Community
This course, with its sister, introductory course, is connecting writers across the region.
Many of our former students have continued to work with each other, forming friendships that prevail long after the course is over. At the end of your course, you’ll be given access to all the available Goldfinch resources to help you with your writing.
You will be enrolled into our Charm writers’ group where you will meet the wider writing community and other course graduates. As a course graduate, you are eligible for on-going advice and support from Goldfinch.
